Saint Fan CaM

Let’s hope so…pointless him stinking the pace out any longer.

Very good signing. Just need a striker or two now…please Jason, don’t screw this up.

Of course it’s humiliating if only for the player…one of those I suspect RM tagged as thinking they’re better than they actually are. I notice there’s very little talk of a contract deal between any club and the player…suggests he and his agent are not easy people to deal with.

Absolutely - a swing from 8m to 3.5m is humiliating to say the least. There must be something very unappealing about ABK for him to find himself without a deal on the last day of the window.

Every bit of ‘evidence’ points to Che going. He seems to want out and SR will accommodate that in anyway they can providing they don’t lose money.

In or out?

Wonder why they’re talking to Saints…are they expecting some sort of refund or something?! 😉🤣🤣

Must be shot away going there. #getscoat

Whoosh!

The office runner is lacing his plimsoles as we speak.

Mowbrays one for the future.

Depends how ‘bad’ the injury was - a medical will determine that no doubt.

Che loan makes no sense, particularly if we’re definitely after Roberts. Not unless the clubs finances are in a much more dire state than anyone envisaged. As others have said relying on just Roberts is a huge gamble.

Don’t go questioning stuff like that - there are many on here who seem to think any signing is a good signing irrespective of quality, style or fitness! 😉🤣

OK that’s a fair point, although I would argue Mara has shown little to suggest he’s capable to be a target man either and we were comparing the two.

Maybe, but it’s not stopped other talented 18 year olds from from breaking into the 1st team.

I agree and I’m perplexed how Ballard has not managed to gain a foothold and ousted Mara from having that opportunity.

Good post. Serves to show where the strategic priority exists for SR. Promotion is of secondary importance and Wilcox has been charged with moving as many players out as possible irrespective of their ability to influence the success of this season. The bloated squad had to be thinned out, so if an asset has a heartbeat they’ll be sold/loaned if there’s an opportunity to do so. And that’s ok…most of them collectively were very poor last season, even against lower ranked teams. Where Wilcox really earns his corn is knowing how to re-build the squad back to a level of quality that can do well this season. Martin is probably providing a lot of input to this, given his time in the Championship, hence the incomings being ex-Martin men he can trust. But to be promoted you need to better than the Championship, so the question is…are we seeing any evidence that the work is being done to achieve this? My concern is we’re still hearing of possible loss of influential players - Tella gone and Che closely following and there’s not much time left to repair these what have become gaping holes. Even if we manage to hold on to Che, we urgently need another very good, mobile striker/AM.

Can’t disagree….you’re not really stating anything at odds with my post(s). The concern is that the Prem team was so badly flawed that it caved even against lower league opposition (unless the players were ‘on show’ against a top 3 club strangely). You can only say it was highly dis-functional and not a good arbiter of the quality needed to improve for life in the Championship. What were the options? Let go as many as possible? The problems start when you’ve got to decide at what level you bring in new players at…it’s a risk, especially when in reality SR were in reality not about to open a huge warchest.

It’s true that what he said is open to interpretation, however whichever way you take it he did mean that he expected the squad to be stronger by the end of the window (as he also expressed some frustration at the window remaining open beyond the start of the season). It’s difficult to imagine how he was able to say this without an expectation that the overall quality of the squad would not be depleted. As someone else has suggested, the coming string of games will provide a clearer picture.

We’re gonna smash ‘em. 1-6 Saints. Or something like that.

I didn’t say that…RM did.

Quite the opposite - read my post…I’ve said exactly the same thing in believing the imperative for the club was financial prudence. That’s not the same as stating that they will support a promotion push or suggest that we’ll have a stronger squad than last seasons, which is a fans imperative.

Oh yes, sorry. The young midfielder standing in at CB. And the loan signing that many were decrying as not as good as what we have already (and not long ago many on here thought our first choice CB pairing was poor). And a…rumour. Fill your boots - be my guest. Weird post? It’s a forum of people with different ideas…what else do you expect? 🙄

I just don’t agree with the POV that it’s been a decent window so far, even keeping Sully, KWP and Che. We’ve lost most of our first choice players and then some, raising a LARGE amount of money. And replaced SOME of them without spending much, which may not be essential in itself, but it’s reflective of SR’s strategic imperative this window…get money in. Anyone who thinks differently is in denial. Thinking back to the promises made at the fans forum, I do think it’s shocking that fans have once again been sold a story that SR would support a promotion push. Personally I didn’t wholly believe it would be as straightforward as that. There seems to be an overly simplistic view of what’s happening. Yes, the team last year got us relegated and were collectively shit (placed in the context of a failing Manager and then two consecutively poor Managers). In a sense it doesn’t matter how poor the outgoing players were collectively…fact is they were consistently selected as first team starters, so what’s left when the majority of those players leave? The also rans. The ones that got ignored or loaned out. Are they any more well equipped to cope with the Championship? We’re already seeing what the options will be when ‘key’ players (like Stephens) get injured - at least with the window open there’s an option to get a replacement in, but will that mean other areas will get neglected as a result? There’s no guarantees our remaining wantaways will still be here…will there be enough time to replace them with quality now the squad is at barebones? There is a positive - Martin seems to be the real deal and connecting with the squad. There is a potential positive…SR utilise the purse and allow Wilcox to get in some real quality in areas that need it over the next few days. My gut feeling based on previous form is we’ll be disappointed, but who knows…perhaps I’m wrong. Let’s hope so.